Partial Water Changes

[Ronnie27]

Hi i am new to this and was wondering what io do when i carry out a partial water change? Do i remove fish to do it? Do i put normal tap water in? do i have to make sure it is filtered threw for a certian amount of time before fish a put back in etc etc. Any help and advice would be great cheers

 

[Harlequins]

Hi There

I am a newbie to fish keeping but i know you dont need to take the fish out,you must declorinate the water,i use tetra aquasafe,5ml to every 10 litres of tap water which is added to the tap water before it is put into your tank.I use a syphon gravel vac for cleaning the gravel and removing the water into 10 litre buckets only used for the fish tanks.

I'm sure if you read the main sticky posts for beginners,these will help you and the experts on here are fab will steer you in the right direction.

 

[Pkn]

Sorry to change the subject but as you said you new to this jsut wondering have you cycled your tank
?

 

[Harlequins]

I thought that then i edited my post,because i spotted the signature

 

[Ronnie27]

yea i am in the process of fishless cycle but was just wondering for the future when i have my fish and i am clening the tank so thought i would ask cheers

 

[arobinson1984]

For your size tanks, the easiest way would be to get yourself a decent sized bucket, roughly 15l and use a gravel vac syphon to clean the gravel at the same time as draining water out of your tank. Keep a little bit of old water in a cup to help you match the temperature of your new water.

Once you have emptied your desired amount then you use the bucket to refill the tank with new fresh water. New tap water MUST be dechlorinated before being added to the tank, you can do this 2 ways, either add a little bit of dechlorinator to each bucket of fresh water before puttingit in the tank OR add dechlorinator to your tank first before adding fresh water but if you do it the second way, you have to add enough dechlorinator for the WHOLE tank.

Make sure you new water is roughly the same temperature as the water you removed, you can judge this with your hand to get fairly close.

In the future when you clean your filter, this must be done in old tank water, never clean your filter with tap water

Andy

 

[vinylman]

And DON'T throw away filter media and replace it with new every month just because the manufacturer says so. All that will do is keep them in money and you without. Filter media can be used until it's just about breaking up. But when you do need to replace some, only do (at most) half at a time, with at least a couple of weeks inbetween.

 

[cowboy507]

id agree with andy, i just a 5 gal bucket and gravel vac to change my 10 gal tank. its easy and effective. always use dechlor though.